Copyright © Ali. H. Haider. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
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International Journal of Advanced Nursing Studies, 9 (1) (2020) 37-41
International Journal of Advanced Nursing Studies
Website: www.sciencepubco.com/index.php/IJANS
Research paper
Coping experiences of Pakistani nurses against
corona stressor; a qualitative study
Ali. H. Haider *
Bahria University Islamabad, Pakistan
*Corresponding author E-mail: psychobreath@gmail.com
Abstract
Objective: The aim of the present qualitative study was to find out how Pakistani Nurses are experiencing the coping strategies against
Corona- Stressor.
Background: Corona is the World- Wide stressor for Nurses. The Pakistani Nurses are experiencing this stressor and are coping with it
too. The present study is on Coping of Nurses of Pakistan against Corona- Stressor.
Method: Narrative variation of qualitative research with conventional content analysis was applied to extract results from open- ended
interview questions which were administered on nurses face to face with purposive sampling technique.
Results: Six major themes; five of conventional coping strategies and one new coping strategy were used by Nurses against Corona-
Stressor.
Discussion & Conclusion: Nurses in Pakistan are using Standard Operating Procedures as a new coping strategy against Corona Stressor
with the already established conventional coping strategies.
Keywords: Content- Analysis; Coping; Corona- Stressor; Experiences; Pakistani Nurses.
1. Introduction
Report of Health System Strengthening Program in Pakistan indicates the training program in which the first 200 Nurses of Pakistan are
going to get training to provide cure to Corona- Patients (50+k cases have been detected in Pakistan with 1.5k+ deaths till now according
to the official website of National Health Service Regulation and Coordination “NHSRC” Pakistan). This was mentioned in a report of
United Nations Population Fund which was published in April 16, 2020. The stress that was limited only to real life stressors, job stressor
and disease stressor, now has been extended to Corona- Stressor World- Wide and in Pakistan. The Nurses who were special victim of
stress may now be considered as Corona- Stressed. The first case of Corona in Pakistan was reported after 20th February- 2020 and still
the nurses are expecting any case anytime in Isolation wards of Hospitals. Nurses are primary caretakers in Health system for every
country of the world and they are fighting on the front lines against Corona and the most important thing is that they should be kept away
from this stressor so, they may focus on their primary job with full dedication and attention but unfortunately, almost in all countries of
the world (including Pakistan), they are having a direct contact with the Corona- Patients either with or without the safety equipment.
This direct contact is leading them to various sorts of mental disorders such as depression, anxiety and stress more than ever before. Re-
garding this issue, to my knowledge, no qualitative studies (even few quantitative studies) have been published from Pakistan so far.
The current Study was concerned about Pakistani Nurses in the Isolation wards attending the Corona- Patients that either they were using
enough coping mechanisms as the strategies to fight against Corona stressor or not. Also, it was a point of concern to know what kind of
and how many coping strategies Nurses are using against Corona- Stressors.
The zero patient for Corona was found in Wuhan, China in 2019 and was supposed to be a deadly form of simple Pneumonia named as
Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona- Virus2.For the present qualitative study, the stressor for Nurses has been termed as Corona-
Stressor as the definition of stress for Nurses in hospital environment is to get exhausted by using all the available body energy in provid-
ing help to the patients (Corona- Patients in this case) and these patients are bringing the limit of exhaustion to nurses so, that’s the rea-
son that nurses are prone to corona stressor in the intense hospital environment (Isolation- Wards in this case) worldwide (Burti & Mazzi,
2004; Hawthorne et al., 2009; Rossberg et al., 2008; Brunt & Hansson, 2002; Johansson et al., 2013).
The present study filled actually the large gap of the internal hidden conditions of nurses in Pakistan who were coping against Corona-
Stressor by attending the patients and the mechanism of their coping was unknown to the world, even the data about their patients was
not present in any research paper from Pakistan.
The previous ways of coping found I n the literature given by Folkman & Lazarus in 1988 are Confronting coping, Distancing, Self-
controlling, Seeking Social Support, Accepting Responsibility, Escape- Avoidance, Planned Problem solving and positive reappraisal.
These are so clear coping mechanisms that all of them are used by nurses of Corona- Patients in Pakistan and world- wide except the
coping mechanism of distancing.